The Shehebar Sephardic Center places rabbis in Sephardic communities around the world. Currently, there are nearly 150 rabbis in the United States, Europe, Asia, Latin America and Africa. The work of the SSC enables struggling Jewish communities, some of them long forgotten, to counter the effects of intermarriage and assimilation. Here are some examples of how the SSC is literally saving Jewish souls in the Diaspora.
Kowloon, Hong Kong
Chief Rabbi of Hong Kong, Rabbi Netanel Meoded, a graduate of the SSC, is the 
leader of Kehilat Zion Hechal Ezra. Established by businessmen from the Syrian Jewish community more than a decade ago, the shul is the leading Sephardic synagogue in Kowloon, Hong Kong. The Jewish community of Hong Kong consists of 600 families and is constantly growing. There is a mikveh, a Jewish elementary school and a high school. The congregation serves the local community, businessmen and tourists.
The shul is on Victoria Harbor in Tsim Sha Tsui East, a popular shopping and business area, within walking distance of many five-star hotels. Services are held 
every day of the year, and guests are provided with strictly kosher meals on the Sabbath and Holy Days.
Lectures and adult education courses are offered each week on all levels. Classes are provided for all ages and there is a large library in the synagogue.
The Habert and Abadi families have maintained the congregation from its very inception, along with supporters from around the world. As the far east becomes more and more of a Jewish center of vibrant living, Hong Kong attracts more individuals and families.
Special efforts are devoted to attracting the youth to an active life within the community, including many programs which are exclusively devoted to the younger members of the congregation and getting them involved in leadership activities and a deeper participation in the many educational programs available to them.
Zagreb, Croatia
The SSC is proud to call Chief Rabbi Dr. Kotel Dadon one of its own. Under the able supervision of Rabbi Dadon, Sephardic Jewish life is thriving in Croatia.
Recently, more than 400 mezuzot were installed in Jewish homes and institutions all over Croatia. Rabbi Dadon has implemented a monthly community Shabbat celebration where Jewish families are invited to experience an authentic Shabbat atmosphere. For the first time since the Holocaust, Jewish weddings and brit milah are being performed. A Sefer Torah was donated to Rabbi Dadon’s synagogue by Magen David Congregation of West Deal, NJ.
In addition, Rabbi Dadon opened a kosher kitchen in the community building, established kosher shechita (slaughter of animals) to satisfy the needs for kosher meat for the members and for the institutions such as the kindergarten, the school and the holiday celebrations, and is working with local authorities to kosher different products in Croatia to enable people to keep kosher.
A Sunday Hebrew school grew from nine students in 1999 to a day school with eight grades today. Several young Croatian women were sent to Israel and returned with teaching diplomas in Hebrew and Jewish studies from the Israeli Ministry of Education. Two of them work in Lauder Hugo Kon, the Jewish day school.
Rabbi Dadon has filled the immense, palpable void that existed in Zagreb and, indeed, all of Croatia. Despite going without spiritual leadership for close to half a century the community embraced the opportunity to learn more about their Jewish heritage.
Torremolinos, Spain
Rabbi Shaul Khalili is working to increase Jewish observance in Torremolinos, just a few miles from Málaga in the heart of Costa del Sol on Spain’s Mediterranean coast. An Orthodox community composed of Sephardic Moroccan Jews serves many Jewish tourists that come from all over the world as well as the many Jews that live in the surrounding area.
A synagogue was built five years ago because the community is growing by leaps and bounds. The shul holds daily classes, has daily minyanim, including Shabbat and Jewish holidays and Kiddush for Shabbat.
There are more than 30 children from age two to bar mitzvah age in the Talmud Torah (Hebrew school) and enrollment increases annually. The Talmud Torah also prepares activities and parties related to the Jewish holidays for the children, parents and grandparents.
All the kosher facilities are under the instruction of Dayan Chanoch Ehrentreau from the London Beth Din (rabbinical court). The shechitah of Behemot is done by Rabbi Shaul Khalili under the instruction of Dayan C. Ehrentreau and are sent all over Spain and Gibraltar. The butchery also offers other kosher items brought from London, France or Israel under reliable hashgachas (supervision).
There is a kosher meat restaurant with a Moroccan-style menu and a kosher pizzeria and bakery which offer a Cholov Yisroel Italian-style menu as well as challot and rolls and salads for Shabbat.
A mikveh, designed and constructed under the instructions of Rabbi Meir Posen recently opened for both men and women. Rabbi Khalili also helps with the mikveh in the Jewish community of Marbella under the instructions of Rabbi Posen.
Rabbi Khalili is a certified mohel and performs brit milahs, and weddings, often travelling in the region to perform these functions. Rabbi Khalili is recognized by the London Beth Din to act as a mesader kidushin (officiate at weddings). Many couples from England, Canada, France and Spain get married in Costa del Sol and other areas.
Belmonte, Portugal
Rabbi Elisha Salas recently moved to Belmonte, Portugal to work with Shavei Israel and teach Torah, Jewish culture and Jewish tradition to B’nai Anousim (Crypto-Jews) in northern Portugal. A rabbinical court sent from Israel two decades ago, restored about 150 B’nai Anousim to the Jewish people. It is believed that there are thousands of B’nai Anousim in Portugal who descended from those forced to convert by the King of Portugal in 1497.
Born in Chile, Rabbi Salas graduated from Santiago University in Chile with two degrees in accounting and religious studies. He made aliyah to Israel in 1999 with his family and became a student of the Shehebar Sephardic Center in its rabbinical training program. In addition to being an ordained rabbi, Salas is certified to practice as a shochet (kosher butcher). In Belonte, Rabbi Salas will teach Torah, Jewish culture and Jewish tradition and launch a wide range of social and educational activities for the Jews there in order to help them live as a traditional, thriving Jewish community.
Chief Rabbi of the Lisbon Jewish Community Eliezer Shai diMartino, also an SSC graduate, is currently leading the Jewish community there. Just four years ago, Rabbi diMartino lit a giant 10-foot Hanukah menorah in the public square in the old Jewish quarter of Olival in downtown historic Porto. Rabbi diMartino is helping restore Jewish life to Lisbon.
For more information or to contact them, email ssc@bentex.com or call (646) 524-2999.
